New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-02-20
PRISONERS OF POVERTY.
WOMEN wAGE.wORKEEs THEIR TRADES
AND THEIR LIVES
XVIII.
BY HELEN CAMPBELL

but somehow now everything gets mixed and
sou can't tell what's steady and what 1snb.
"What makes the miXp'
"The Lord only knows!' I've studied over II
TIL Pm dazed, and sometimes I've wondered IL
my mind was weakening"
The SPEAKER. O middle-agcd scouch"oina"
whose tongue still held little OF the purr ,,i''
thirty years of American life had not oeen aD'o
to extract, put her hand to her heao aS '"'
fault must concentrate there ,.
sIf il was nv trade alone" she said, 81 might
think was to blame for not learning new Mass'
hut it's the same in all. Now take mattress
ma,xirc / learned that because l could hclp
nv father best that way. lie was an upholsterer
In Aberdeen and came over to better himself, and
he aid IL he hadn't signed notes for friend ana
ruined himself. He upholstered in the big faml-
lies for thirty years. and everybody Khe" MS
little place on Hudson-st. People then bought
furniture to last and had II covered win une
brst of stuff and so with curtains and hangings.
Damasx was damask / can tell you, and velvet
lambreouus meant money. No cOtton-back stun.
They got shaken and brushed and done up from
moths People had some respect Tor good ma
terial. Nobody respects anything now, ana
snw n rlch woman the other day let her boy
six years OLD empty box of candy on p'ic
blue satin couch and then sit down on 1t and
IL
that when there's no respect left for anything
ft's no wonder decent work comes To amend
make a mattress and there isn't an inch or IL
that isn't sewed to last and that isn't an honest
niece Of work but you go into any house
furnishing department and buy one that looks
lust as well for a third less money. Everything
30 cheap that people don't care whether anyth'ns
lasts or not, and so there's no decent work DONE
and people pretend to have learned trades when
really they Just bOtch things together. l just go
round In houses and make over places that I'VE
had for years and Eve been forewoman in a big
factory, but somehow a factory mattress never
seems to me as springy and good rs inc ola
kind. UpholstereIs make pretty good wages, ouI
1t canb be called steady nny more. though II used
to be. I've thought many time of going into
business for myself, but competitions awful and
I'm afraid to try. j won't cheat, and there's no
getting ahead unless you do
"What are the wages p
"a picker gets about 50 week. She Just
picks over the hair. and most any Kind OF glfl
seems 10 do now that everything Is steamed or
done by machinery. The highest wages now are
60 q week. though ! used to earn fifteen and
eighteen sometimes, and the dull season makes
the average about SO. earn nine or ten be-
cause 1 do good deal Of private wo.k' buo
woman that can make $40 month straight
ahead Is lucky"
Several women of much the same order OF in
telligence, two Of them forewOmen for years In
prosperous establishments, added their testimony
as to the shifting character Of wages and OF en-
ployments. One had watched the course OF neck
ties for seventeen years-a kecn-eyed little WIDOW
who had fought hard to educate her two children
and preserve some portion OF the respectaollty
she loved.
hi n1c
have been, or, for that matter, how many kinds
there are We even make stocks for a few old
fashioned gentlemen that will have them. It's
q business that lady turns to first thing almost
II she wants to earn, and we give out hundreds
on hundreds to such. besides sending loads irto
khe country often think our house turns out
enough for the whole United States, but we're
only beginning We pay well-we1 as any and
better. Twenty five cents O dozen is good pay
now, and we see that our cutter leaves margin
enough to keep the women from being cheated
That's great trick with some. Sometimes the
cutter is paid by the number he can get out OF q
piece Of goods, sometimes he screws Just because
he's made So But they cut by measure and they
allow 80 little to turn in that the thing trays
In your hand and no mortal could help it, and
IL one is frayed the foreman just throws out the
dozen Then lots OF them advertise for girls to
learn and say they must give the first week or
fortnight free, and when that is over they say
work is slack or some other excuse and take in
lot more that have been waiting. We've taken
many girl that came crying and told how she'd
been kept on and cheated. There's one man on
Ihird-ave. that runs his place on this plan ana
has got rich. But l say to every girl; You'd
better have something more than the last shape
In neclSties between you and starvation. You'll
never get beyond five or six dollars week at
most. and generally not that.b 1t don't make
any difference. There dozens waiting Tor
the chance to starve genteelly. It's gentcei
trade and pretty steady one, but If dub
time comes the girls go into cigar-makins and
manage along somehow Pve coaxed good
many into service, but 1t isn't one in hundred
will try that"
The third woman represented a hat-pressing
factory in which she had been eleven years, and
In which the wages had fallen year by year,
till at present women, even when most expert,
can earn net over six dollars per week as against
from eight to twelve in previous years. The
trade Is regarded as steady one, for spring and
summer straws give place to felt, and q certain
number Of hands are sure Of employment. In di-
rect association with this trade must be con-
sidered that OF artificial flowers and feathers, in
which there is perpetual see-saw. il feathers
are in vogue flowers arc down and vice versa.
Five thousand women are employed ON feathers,
and the establishments, which in 1871 numbered
but twelve, now number over fifty but those for
flowers far exceed them. Learners work for SO
OF less per week. the highest wages attainablc
In either being SIS. bhe average being about 50.
The demand for the other is continuous.
but when fashion in 1886 called for scaIfs and
flowers, 1000 feather-woriSers thrown out
AMI lived as they could till another turn in the
wheel restored their occupation.
"One OF the other of can Is always steady"
said woman who had learned both trades and
thus stood prepared TO circlmvcnt fate. "1hc
trouble is you never know a week ahead which
viii be up and which down. Lots Of us have
learned both, and when l see the firm putting
their heads together l know what it means and
just go across the way to PillsbuIys and the
with them. It's good pay and one or the other